Apple’s new music-focused iPad Ad

Just in time for the Grammys, Apple has released a new music focused iPad Ad entitled ‘Change’.

The Ad features Swedish singer Elliphant, Los Angeles-based producer Gaslamp Killer, and English DJ Riton composing, mixing, producing and recording music entirely using iPads and ends with the phrase – “Everything changes with iPad”

Check it out!

Apple iPad Air 2 Ad

Released just under a month ago, Apple’s new iPad Air 2 ad shows people doing amazing and inspiring things on and with their iPad 2’s. Which is great, if you’re into all that, we guess.

From the sauce:

“Change is in the Air. From the studio to the classroom, the field to the garage, iPad Air 2 is helping people discover new and better ways to do the things they love. Imagine what you’ll do with it.”

It also rocks to play games on whilst procrastinating, so there’s that to consider too.

What’s happening with Google Glass?

Onto another much talked about Google invention – Google Glass.In recent weeks it seems that the trajectory of the project has changed, moving out of Google’s experimental Google X labs to be a stand alone product, heading towards being a full on consumer product in the next-to-near future.

Still being headed up by Ivy Ross, Glass will also now be overseen by Tony Fadell who also runs Google’s line of Nest Devices. An important detail in all of this? The Google Glass explorer program ended on January 19th.

Expect Google Glass to be subject to some pretty significant, more user friendly changes between now and then, likely more so with the design and user accessibility then the software.

Ivy Ross, and Tony Fadell both have a design heavy background, and Fadell was the designer of the original iPod. As well as making the product more user friendly, the aim has to be to make it a much more lauded product – instead of the punchline of so many tech/hipster/douchebag jokes.

Although they have a lot to overcome, including a lot of people’s seemingly insurmountable personal security concerns, hopefully for Google’s sake, from now on, we’ll hear less ” I got punched in the face for wearing Google Glass” stories and more “Google Glass is awesome” stories.

Google taking over the world

So it looks like as well as taking over the internet, driverless car technology and a googolplex of other projects (see what we did there?) Google will soon be launching it’s own wireless carrier service.

The service will be using both T-Mobile and Sprint infrastructure under newly inked deals, allowing them to provide a service they can control in what some say is a direct way pushing the fairly tight competition into an arena with higher speeds and lower pricing.

There is no information yet on when their wireless carrier brand will launch or any other specifics, but we’ll keep you updated as we know more!

Steve Jobs Biopic update!

Photos have surfaced on UK website The Daily mail, that show Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogan in character on the set of the new Steve Jobs Biopic.

The shots were taken whilst the two were filming at the Flint Center in Cupertino last week. The photo seemed to confirm to some the uncertainty that had arisen from Fassbender’s casting, as he looked less like Jobs than expected, however others were left simply intrigued.

If you remember, in leaked Sony emails, producers were initially against the final casting of Fassbender after Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale dropped out, stating that “The world isn’t going to care”.

Meanwhile,  a couple of days later a bunch of over 2000 people got super excited about the possibility of being involved with the film, dressed up in their 80’s best, responding to a casting call for extras and lining up from 5Am for a 9am call time.

Check out the casting call here. The film will reportedly continue filming around the Bay Area for the next 6-7 weeks so keep an eye out!

Want to win a Private Jet flight for Valentines Day?

So, Valentines day, Huh. What are you guys thinking? Chocolates & Wine? Bourbon & Frisbee Golf? Whale Watching and Diamonds? Netflix and Gin? Or are you looking past Valentines day to March 14th?

Well, we have an idea for you. How about this Valentines day you start thinking new places & Private Jets?

Yump.

Private jet charter Jetsmarter is offering empty leg flights to non-members on February 14th. For $4 in taxes. Four dollars. 

The contest ends on Cupids Birthday, February 14th, and to take part you need to follow Jetsmarter on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, download the company’s app, and add your current location as well as all the cities within the US, Bahamas, and Canada you’d like to fly to under “Frequent Locations” in “My Settings”.

Dozens of lucky lovers will be given the rare opportunity of trippin’ in a Private Jet from  Miami to New York, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Chicago to Aspen, Boston to New York among hundreds more journeys.

Check it out, Yo! And download the App here for free! 

Google translate update

What do we think about Google translate? Pretty good…right? Except sometimes it doesn’t… make a lot of sense? Yeah? It’s a good tool, but not a great tool.

This is all about to change. The Google Translate app has been updated and is better than ever before. It will now allow users to have the spoken word efficiently interpreted in real time. Fancy. The update will make it so the App automatically recognizes the language being spoken and translates it.

It will also, magically, be able to integrate your smart phone camera into it’s translation toolkit. Aim the camera at a sign or words that are in another language and it will translate it for you. This feature magically works without Wi-Fi or data connection.

The update has been launched! Go check it out! Speak to some people who don’t speak your language! The future is now!

Check out the awesome tech that is Microsoft Hololens

Ok Guys, remember how we’re always saying how awesome tech is right now?

SO, YEAH, we’ve got another GEM of an SUPER DOOPER exciting future product to show you. Check this out and try not to smack that guy next to you in excitement.

Whaaaaaaaaaat.

Read Bill Gates’ 2030 goals.

Bill Gates is kind of a big deal. If you look at the blazing path he created in the tech industry, it’s pretty awesome, but then if you take into account the blazing path he and his wife Melinda are currently creating in the industry of philanthropy- it’s amazing.

He’s the kind of dude where, if he speaks, you probably want to listen. 

Gates and his wife Melinda started The Gates Foundation 15 years ago with the aim of backing innovative work in health and education towards reducing inequity. They’ve made exiting progress.

Now, see what he has to say in his annual letter about their goals for the next 15 years, looking forward to 2030. Listen up.

“The lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history. And their lives will improve more than anyone else’s.”

HEALTH: Child deaths will halve, more diseases to be wiped out.

“When we look at the progress the world has made in the past generation, since 1990, we believe global health equity is an achievable goal,”

By 2030, Gates is predicting that massively destructive diseases including both Polio and Guinea worm will be eliminated. Almost all countries will vaccinate against debilitating illnesses such as pneumonia and diarrhea.

Although elimination seems a little out of reach for 2030, progress will made in the fight against the big guys – Malaria and HIV.

“As we make progress toward a[n HIV] vaccine or a cure, the number of people beginning treatment in sub-Saharan Africa will finally outstrip the number of people newly infected. When we reach that point in the region with the most dense HIV transmission in the world, cases will start going down everywhere around the globe for the first time since the disease was discovered more than 30 years ago.”

Between 1990 and now, the number of deaths for children under five was cut in half. This will happen again by 2030, bringing the death rate down to one child in 40.

Better sanitation — through simple actions like hand-washing as well as innovations like new toilets designed especially for poor places — will cut the spread of disease dramatically.

FARMING: Africa will be able to feed itself.

“With the right investments, we can deliver innovation and information to enough farmers in Africa to increase productivity by 50 per cent for the continent overall.”

70% of people living in sub-saharan Africa are farmers, and yet currently the continent relies on air and imported food. Providing African farmers with the technology to produce more nutritious, drought and disease resistant crops will allow them to increase their productivity and feed themselves.
 

BANKING: Mobile banking will transform lives of the poor.

“Not having access to a range of cheap and easy financial services makes it much more difficult to be poor.”

Mobile phones are the key. There are already people in developing countries who are storing and transferring money digitally on their phones. The prediction, or goal, is that by 2030 2 billion people who don’t have a bank account today, will be storing and transferring money with their mobile phones.

They will also have access , via their mobile money providers, to a full range of financial services. Digital banking will allow the poor to have control over their assets.

EDUCATION: Better software will revolutionize learning

“As high-speed cell networks grow and smartphones become as cheap as today’s voice-only phones, online education will flourish,”

Online learning will be fully accessible in developing countries in 2030, providing more gender equality in education.

“Education is a great leveler, but if the factors that hold girls back are not addressed, and if access to education isn’t equal, then education will become another cause of inequity, rather than a cure for it.”

Easy access to online education also leads to a larger resource of education workers, which in turn leans to to a higher GDP and a higher overall standard of living.

If you would like to read the entire letter, please check it out here. If you would like to learn more about the philanthropy that Bill and Melinda gates are involved with, check out The Gates Foundation here. 

Apple camera patent threatens GoPro?

GoPro has been the King of portable, wearable camera’s for ages now and every thrill seeking, snowboarding, globetrotting guy with some cash worth his salt has one.

Now, something has sent their stock down a pretty shocking 12% ! What could it be? Um.. step on up Apple?

According to PatentlyApple, Apple has patented a design for a digital video camera that will be some serious competition for GoPro.Although the Patent was applied for quite a while ago, it was approved this past Tuesday and has since had the tech world buzzing.

The camera, whose existence Apple has not officially acknowledged, will be small, remote controlled, and wearable, but may improve on the GoPro by being less susceptible to damage and creating a smaller profile which creates less wind resistance.

Now, Apple patents a lot of designs. A lot.   So the likelihood that this wearable camera design will come to fruition at all, let alone any time soon, is relatively slim. But still possible, and certainly still possible enough for people to rethink their wearable camera stock options.

Go Pro’s shares are currently $48.35